Lambazouk, also called the Porto Seguro-style, is often thought of as the evolution of original lambada, although in its current iteration it has diverged far from original Lambada. This dance is characterized by high energy (energia) and feel good attitude (alegria). Although it is a fast and energetic dance, it flows smoothly and the moves are continuous and rhythmic, and dancers follow circular (and to a lesser extent slot-style) movements as they relate to each other. One way in which the present lambazouk differs from the original kaoma-like lambada style, is that they have removed wiggling shoulder movements (also sometimes seen in Cuban-style salsa). Instead the shoulders are kept fixed while the hips move (swing) to create a sensual effect. A number of movements have been added to the modern version of this dance mainly created by Braz dos Santos and Didi Santos of Brazil.

Lambazouk is characterized by the following movements:

– Head movements (Cabeça – head moves in the same direction as shoulder; Boneca – Head moves in the reverse direction as shoulder for half measure

– (Hair) whip movement (Chicote)

– Back arch/dip (Cambre)

The original Porto Seguro style is also unique in the way steps are performed to music (in this sense it is closer to Lambada). Here, the steps are performed with equal emphasis (same amount of travel) on strong beat and the two beats that follow (including the pause after the strong beat). This is done specifically to facilitate musicality by matching sharp movements (chicote and cambre) with the strong beat. When danced this way dancers fluently incorporate sharp movements to accentuate strong beat without stopping the dance (pausing to catch up). Even though this timing is popular in lambazouk it is by no means exclusive. Many lambazouk dancers also dance by taking longer step (or turning the follower) on the dominant beat. It is also a common practice to switch between the two timings within the same song (by doing multiple contra-tempo turns for the follower). In lambazouk style (as explained earlier) a popular way is to step equally (length-wise) on strong beat and following two beats. This creates continuous movements.

Lambazouk is mainly danced in Porto Seguro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Argentina, Spain, UK, Israel, the west coast of the US, Japan & recently also in Malaysia and Australia.

Forró is a genre of Brazilian music that originated in Northeastern Brazil. It encompasses various dance styles as well as a number of different musical beats. This music genre has gained widespread popularity in all regions of Brazil. Forró is closely associated with Brazilian June Festivals, which celebrate a number of Christian saints. The most celebrated is Saint John‘s day.

There are several theories on the origin of the name. The main theory is that forró as a derivative of forrobodó, meaning “great party” or “commotion”. This is the view held by Brazilian folklorist Luís da Câmara Cascudo, who studied the Brazilian Northeast through most of his life. Forrobodó is believed to come from the word forbodó (itself a corruption of fauxbourdon), which was used in the Portuguese court to define a dull party. The word forrobodó is itself very common in Portuguese popular conversation to describe a fun, but almost depraved and limitless party. This word was carried by Portuguese migration waves to Brazil, and lost the light negative meaning and was slowly simplified by their children.

Yet another theory often heard popularly in Brazil and elsewhere—for example, Gilberto Gil provides it in concerts—is that the word forró is a derivative of the English expression “for all” and that it originated in the early 1900s. English engineers on the Great Western Railway of Brazil near Recife would throw balls on weekends and classify them as either only for railroad personnel or for the general populace (“for all”). This belief was somewhat reinforced by a similar practice by USAF personnel stationed at the Natal Air Force Base during World War II, but it is unrelated because before the USAF went to Natal, the name “Forró” was already in use.

Forró is the most popular genre of music and dance in Brazil’s Northeast, to the extent that historically “going to the Forró” meant simply going to party or going out. Regarding the music, it is based on a combination of three instruments (accordion, zabumba and a metal triangle). The dance however becomes very different as you cross the borders of the Northeast into the Southeast. As part of the popular culture it is in constant change. The dance known as college forró is the most common style between the middle-class students of colleges and universities in the Southeast, having influences of other dances like salsa and samba-rock.

The traditional music used to dance the forró was brought to the Southeast from the Northeast by Luiz Gonzaga, who transformed the baião (a word originated from baiano and assigned a warm-up for artists to search for inspiration before playing) into a more sophisticated rhythm. In later years, forró achieved popularity throughout Brazil, in the form of a slower genre known as xote, that has been influenced by pop-rock music to become more acceptable by Brazilian youth of Southeast, South and Central regions.

Samba is a Brazilian musical genre and dance style, with its roots in Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions, particularly of Angola and the Congo, through the samba de roda genre of the northeastern state of Bahia, from which it derived. Although there were various forms of samba in Brazil in the form of various popular rhythms and regional dances that originated from drumming, samba as a music genre is seen as originally a musical expression of urban Rio de Janeiro, then the capital and largest city ofImperial Brazil.

It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival. Considered one of the most popular Brazilian cultural expressions, samba has become an icon of Brazilian national identity. The Bahian Samba de Roda (dance circle), which became a UNESCO Heritage of Humanity in 2005, is the main root of thesamba carioca, the samba that is played and danced in Rio de Janeiro.

The modern samba that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century is predominantly in a 2/4 tempo varied with the conscious use of a sung chorus to abatucada rhythm, with various stanzas of declaratory verses. Traditionally, the samba is played by strings (cavaquinho and various types of guitar) and various percussion instruments such as tamborim. Influenced by American orchestras in vogue since the Second World War and the cultural impact ofUS music post-war, samba began to use trombones, trumpets, choros, flutes, and clarinets.

In addition to distinct rhythms and meters, samba brings a whole historical culture of food, varied dances (miudinho, coco, samba de roda, and pernada), parties, clothes such as linen shirts, and the Naif painting of established names such as Nelson Sargento, Guilherme de Brito, and Heitor dos Prazeres. Anonymous community artists, including painters, sculptors, designers, and stylists, make the clothes, costumes, carnival floats, and cars, opening the doors of schools of samba. There is also a great tradition of ballroom samba in Brazil, with many styles. Samba de Gafieira is the style more famous in Rio de Janeiro, where common people used to go to the gafieira parties since the 1930s, and where the moves and identity of this dance has emerged, getting more and more different from its African, European and Cuban origins and influences.

The Samba National Day is celebrated on December 2. The date was established at the initiative of Luis Monteiro da Costa, an Alderman ofSalvador, in honor of Ary Barroso. He composed “Na Baixa do Sapateiro” even though he had never been in Bahia. Thus 2 December marked the first visit of Ary Barroso to Salvador. Initially, this day was celebrated only in Salvador, but eventually it turned into a national holiday.

Samba is a local style in Southeastern Brazil and Northeast Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Salvador and Recife. Its importance as Brazil’s national music transcends region, however; samba schools, samba musicians and carnival organizations centered on the performance of samba exist in every region of the country, even though other musical styles prevail in various regions (for instance, in Southern Brazil, Center-West Brazil, and all of the Brazilian countryside, Sertanejo, or Brazilian country music, is the most popular style).

Samba de Gafieira (also called Gafieira) is a partner dance to the Brazilian samba musical rhythms. Unlike variousstreet and club forms of Brazilian samba, it evolved as a ballroom dance (dança de salão, literally, “salon dance”).

Samba de Gafieira must be distinguished from the ballroom Samba, danced in International Latin and American Rhythmballroom dance styles.

Gafieira is usually a pair dance, although in artistic performances it is not uncommon to add solo variations, including steps of Samba no Pé.

The word “gafieira” can also refer to the traditional samba music orchestra, as well as the dance hall where it is performed. The term gafieira was Brazilian Portuguese slang meaning “low dancing resort, gaff, honky-tonk” or “dance festivity frequented by the populace”.

The style originated from samba dancing in cabarets and gafieiras (hence the name, literally meaning “Samba of gafieira”), primarily in districts of Botafogo, Catete and Centro of Rio de Janeiro. The term gained recognition in 1940s. Over time the style significantly evolved away from the style 1940s under significant influence of Argentine Tango and incorporating many acrobatic elements.”

 Lambada is a dance from Pará, Brazil, of African origin[citation needed]. The dance became internationally popular in the 1980s, especially in Latin America and Caribbean countries. It has adopted aspects of dances such as forró, salsa, merengue,maxixe and the carimbó.

Lambada is generally a partner dance. The dancers generally dance with arched legs, with the steps being from side to side, turning or even swaying, and in its original form never front to back, with a pronounced movement of the hips. At the time when the dance became popular, short skirts for women were in fashion and men wore long trousers, and the dance has become associated with such clothing, especially for women wearing short skirts that swirl up when the woman spins around, typically revealing 90s-style thong underwear.

The French group Kaoma recorded a number one worldwide summer hit “Lambada“, sung in Portuguese, which sold 5 million singles in 1989. The song peaked at #46 in the United States in 1990 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In Portuguese, the “Lambada” song is called “Chorando se foi”, which means Crying he/she went away.

Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art with its roots originating in Angola and the Congo, that combines elements of dance, acrobatics andmusic, and is usually referred to as a game. It was developed in Brazilmainly by West Africans, beginning in the 16th century. It is known for quick and complex moves, using mainly power, speed, and leverage for a wide variety of kicks, spins, and highly mobile techniques.

The most widely accepted origin of the word capoeira comes from the Tupiwords ka’a (“jungle”) e pûer (“it was”)[citation needed], referring to the areas of low vegetation in the Brazilian interior where fugitive slaves would hide. Practitioners of the art are called capoeiristas.

On 26 November 2014 capoeira was granted a special protected status as “intangible cultural heritage” by UNESCO.

Capoeira’s history begins with the beginning of African slavery in Brazil. Since the 17th century, Portuguese colonists began exporting slaves to their colonies, coming mainly from West Africa. Brazil, with its vast territory, received most of the slaves, almost 40% of all slaves sent through the Atlantic Ocean. The early history of capoeira is still controversial, especially the period between the 16th century and the beginning of the 19th century, since historical documents were very scarce in Brazil at that time. But oral tradition, language and evidence leaves little doubt about its Afro-Brazilian roots.

In the 16th century, Portugal had claimed one of the largest territories of the colonial empires, but lacked people to colonize it, especially workers. In the Brazilian colony, the Portuguese, like many European colonists, chose to useslavery to supply this shortage of workers. In its first century, the main economic activity in the colony was the production and processing of sugar cane. Portuguese colonists created large sugarcane farms called engenhos, which depended on the labor of slaves. Slaves, living in inhumane and humiliating conditions, were forced to work hard and often suffered physical punishment for small misbehaviors. Although slaves often outnumbered colonists, rebellions were rare due to lack of weapons, harsh colonial law, disagreement between slaves coming from different African cultures and lack of knowledge about the new land and its surroundings usually discouraged the idea of a rebellion.

In this environment, capoeira was born as a simple hope of survival. It was a tool with which an escaped slave, completely unequipped, could survive in the hostile, unknown land and face the hunt of the capitães-do-mato, the armed and mounted colonial agents who were charged with finding and capturing escapees.

Axé is a popular music genre originating in Salvador, Bahia,Brazil approximately in 1986, fusing different Afro-Caribbean genres, such as Marcha, Reggae, and Calypso. It also includes influences of Brazilian music such as Frevo, Forróand Carixada. The most important creator of this music style was Alfredo Moura, conducting Carlinhos Brown, Luiz Caldas, Sarajane and others. The word “axé” comes from a Yoruba religious greeting used in the Candomblé and Umbanda religions that means “soul”, “light”, “spirit” or “good vibration”.

When Daniela Mercury released O Canto da Cidade in 1992, axé entered the mainstream pop music scene and became one of the most popular genres in Brazil. Two years before, the American and European release of Margareth Menezes‘Elegibô took the style to international audiences.

Funk carioca, favela funk and, elsewhere in the world, baile funk, is a type of dance music from Rio de Janeiro, derived from Miami bass and African style music.

“Baile funk”, in Brazil, refers not to the music, but to the actual parties ordiscothèques in which the music is played. Although originated in Rio, funk carioca has become increasingly popular amongst working classes in other parts of Brazil. In the whole country, funk carioca is most often simply known as funk, although it is very different musically from what funkmeans in most other places.

Funk carioca was once a direct derivative of Miami bass and freestyle(another Miami-based genre) music from the United States. The reason why these genres, very localized in the USA, became popular and influential in Rio de Janeiro is due to proximity. Miami was a popular plane stop for Rio DJs to buy the latest American records.

During the 1970s, in Rio de Janeiro, nightclubs play funk and soul.

Funk carioca was popularized in the 1980s in Rio de Janeiro‘s favelas, the city’s slums. From the mid-1990s on, it was a mainstream phenomenon in Brazil. Funk songs discuss topics as varyied as poverty, human dignity, racial pride of black people, sex (breaking taboos), violence and social injustice. Social analysts believe that carioca funk is a genuine expression of the severe social issues that burden the poor and black people in Rio.

According to DJ Malboro, the main influence for the emergence of funk carioca was the single Planet Rock of Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force, launched in 1982.

The rhythms of carioca funk in its early days were mostly loops of electronic drums from Miami bass or freestyle records, while a few artists composed them with actual drum machines. The most common drum beat was a loop of DJ Battery Brain’s “808 volt”, commonly referred to as “Voltmix”, though Hassan’s “Pump Up The Party” is also notable. Nowadays, carioca funk rhythms are mostly based on tamborzão rhythms instead of the older drum machine loops.

Melodies are usually sampled. Older songs typically chopped up freestyle samples for the melody, or had none at all. Modern funk uses a set of samples from various sources, notably horn and accordion stabs, as well as the horn intro to the “Rocky” theme. Funk music has always used a small catalog of rhythms and samples which almost all songs take from (commonly with several in the same song). Funk carioca songs can either be instrumental or include rapping, singing, or something in between the two.

Zurich Zouk Congress 15-17 May

Casa do Zouk – Gold Coast Australia on the 24th to 26th July

1st International Miami Zouk Festival 2014, Miami Beach, February 20 – 24

3rd Zouk SEA (South East Asia) Festival 2014, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 8 – 10 August

Zurich Zouk Congress 29 May – 1 June

8th International Lambada/Zouk Congress 2013 Barcelona April

1st International USA Zouk Congress 2013 Los Angeles May

3rd Middle Eastern Zouk & Latin Festival Dubai

2nd Zouk SEA (South East Asia) Festival 2013, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 9 – 11 August

Zurich Zouk Congress 30 May – 2 June

“1st International Zouk Congress in Austria”

2nd Asia Brazil Carnival in Hong Kong, 18 – 24th February 2012

1st Zouk SEA (South East Asia) Festival 2012, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia August

The 1st Scandinavian International Lambada/Zouk-congress in Sweden, Uppsala 17-19th June 2011

1st Buenos Aires Zouk Congress 2011 8-11 September 2011 Buenos Aires, Argentina

Brazil Central Zouk Lambada Congress 2011 30 September -2 October 2011 Brisbane Australia

5th International Lambada/Zouk Congress 2010 Barcelona April

1st International Zouk congress Prague 2010 Prague, 28th-31st January

II International Zouk and Lambada Congress in Rio de Janeiro 7th-10th January 2010

2nd Annual DC Bachata & International Dance Festival 2010 19th-22nd August 2010 National Harbor, MD

Brazil Central Zouk Lambada Congress 2010 1-3 October 2010 Brisbane Australia

4th International Lambada/Zouk Congress 2009 Barcelona 30th April – 3rd May

Salsalegría Zouk Dance Festival

First International Zouk and Lambada Congress in Rio de Janeiro on 4 January 2008

Lambaporto Dance Congress 2008 in Porto Seguro on 7 January 2008

3rd International Lambada/Zouk Congress 2006 Barcelona

1st International Brazilian Dance Festival in Bremen (Germany) 18th/19th October 2008

2º Congresso Internacional de Zouk em Brasília on 17 February 2007

2nd International Lambada/Zouk Congress 2006 Barcelona

3rd Brazilian Dance Congress 2006 Amsterdam

1st International Lambada/Zouk Congress 2006 Barcelona

2nd Brazilian Dance Congress 2006 Amsterdam

1st Brazilian Dance Congress 2005
Amsterdam

The First International Lambada
Congress Barcelona 2004